Catalonia tracks transport services in real-time

POLIS member, Catalonia, has begun a pilot test to improve the service of the interurban bus network- using technology developed through an open competition.

The solution is known as ‘AquiBus’, developed by the Catalan company Nexus Geographics, which offers real time information, tracks buses and calculates service quality indicators, such as punctuality or occupancy.

The bus operator Autocars Gamón, the Metropolitan Transport Authority ATM of Lleida, the administration and the users receive this information through an app. This adds to sustainable mobility work being pioneered across the region, including a new bus rapid transit system (BRT) ‘exprés. cat’; with 40 new bus lines with high levels of service (BHLS) the region is to radically improve its interurban public transport network.

This solution, which will be piloted until November, does not require an installation in the vehicles or an investment for additional hardware. With the tracking of each vehicle in real-time, the system can optimise the management of road public transport, easing the detection of possible incidents in the service.

This solution was developed following the SmartCatalonia Challenge, the open innovation competition promoted by the Catalan Ministry for Vice-presidency, Digital Policies and Territory as part of the SmartCatalonia strategy. The tech solution ‘AquiBus’ was awarded with the first prize in the ninth edition of this challenge.

This competition encourages small and medium enterprises and technology start-ups to create solutions to give an answer to the challenges formulated by the municipalities and other bodies. In this edition, the General Direction for Transport and Mobility proposed five challenges to optimise the road public transport, to be solved with an innovative solution. ‘AquiBus’ received the first prize, valued with €15,000 and the chance to do a pilot test.